Prepping for CS (And

Other Children’s Topics)

By Bonnie Kolber

AASI-E Examiner and ACE Team Coach, Eastern Team Member

Are you an experienced children’s instructor looking for accreditation?

Or are you interested in learning about teaching children to ski and snowboard? The Advanced Children’s Educators (ACE) Team will offer a number of Children’s Specialist (CS) Prep and Children’s Focus topics next season for a variety of interests and objectives.

If you are wondering what a Children’s Specialist event is all about, the CS Prep will help prepare you for what to expect. It is an excellent opportunity to dive into aspects of the Learning Connection model like People Skills needed to communicate with students and parents and manage behavior, Teaching Skills that enable children’s instructors to plan and present learning segments based on movement analysis and real and ideal movements,

Calling All Future Pros

The SnowPro publication is featuring pictures of our Future Snow Pros. What did their first day sliding on snow look like? Share their adventure!

and Technical Skills based on fundamental movements and stages of development (the CAP Model). These CS Prep events are designed to help aspiring CS candidates achieve their goals and are led by the same ACE Team members who administer the assessment events. It is highly recommended to take one of these events prior to attending an assessment to have the opportunity to engage in guided practice with assessment activities that you may encounter at Children’s Specialist accreditation events, and to receive personal feedback that will help you prepare to take the CS1 or CS2.

But wait – there’s more! Do you want to learn more about teaching children snowsports but aren’t looking to be assessed? Check out a Children’s Focus event! These are fun and educational events that will focus on the creative side of teaching, exploring the fundamentals and how to make building skills fun for kids. The Children’s Focus events are led by the same ACE Team members who lead the CS and CS Prep events, and will cover topics like movement analysis and what to look for at different ages and stages, how to keep our youngest students engaged

Future

Snow Pros and motivated, and how to create skill-building activities to add to your bag of tricks.

What did these future Snow Pros look like on the first day they slid on snow?!

If you are starting the journey toward Children’s Specialist 1 or 2, it isn’t too early to start a summer reading list and review some resources. The newest PSIA-AASI Teaching Children Snowsports Manual, written by Mark Aiken, Kevin Jordan, and an amazing supporting collection of children’s icons, is an engaging read chock-full of great information. The Children’s Specialist Standards can be found at thesnowpros.org/certification/national-certificationstandards/. Did you know we also have a detailed CS Performance Guide, complete with examples of successful and unsuccessful performance? This can also be found at the same link under “Performance Guides” along with the CS Assessment Forms. Take note of what areas on the form you feel are your strengths and weaknesses, and cross-reference with the Performance Guide to get some ideas of how to build skills. The best homework of all: hang out with kids, and see if you can identify and apply aspects of the CAP model in your observations and interactions. Have fun and see you when the snow flies! <<